News

WHAT ACADEMIES ACROSS EUROPE DO MOST OFTEN AND WHAT DO THEY THE LEAST?

First, I suggest you to read ECA research on Youth academies available on https://lnkd.in/eQh69vNt. Here are a few tips on how to use this publication:

1.     Go through the list of working processes used in the survey and see if you find any working process on the list interesting for you and are willing to work on its implementation (feel free to contact me for a list of working processes if you haven’t saved them from survey)

2.     Go through lists of most used working processes and see if you have all of them (pages 60-61)

3.     Go through the list of least used working processes and see which you don’t have (pages 62-63)

4.     Go through the list of most correlated processes and try to identify causality for correlation and see how those working processes are relevant in your academy (pages 64-67)

5.     If you find a specific working process especially interesting to you, feel free to contact me to reach out for the list of working processes it is correlated with.

6.     Go through the list of most recognized indicators of successful transition from academy to the first team and cross-check it with your club (pages 70-73).

Most and least used working processes in academies.

What do academies across Europe do most often? What is a “must” to have. On the other side what are the least number of working processes academies are doing. Most used working processes are observed in two margins: those which are used in more than 90% of academies and those which are used between 80% and 90% of academies. Least used working processes are observed in margin of less than 25%.

Areas of working processes are following ones:

Talent identification

› Environment perspective

› Club perspective

Youth academy

› Playing style

› Players

› Coaches

› Teams

› Scouting

› Sale of players

› Infrastructure

› Staff

› Parents

› Player agents

› School and academy community

Transition from youth academy to first team

Selling/leaving the club

Other departments

Decision making

It is obvious that most used working processes are related to talent identification from perspective of environment of player in TID. On the same level are working processes related to playing style in academies. Among these processes areas it is recognized that strong focus are on human capital and cognitive care.

To see dynamic, we have made an analysis of margin 80-90%. 

In this margin we can see that dynamic of change is happening and more focus is on area related to relations with players. Better said there is focus on individual development of each player. This area is followed by relations with and school and academic institutions. Besides player, areas of “coach”, “staff, “school and academy community”, “TID-club” and “transition from youth academy to the first team” are represented in both of most used margins. Areas related to the environment of players in processes related to talent identification are lost as well as working processes related to playing style and relations with parents.

Most leased used working processes in research made are related to player agents as I have already written in prior articles. Processes related to cognitive care are well presented starting from measuring IQ of players and coaches but also other cognitive care processes. Personal brand of players is still not well recognized as topic important for development of young players. Also, questionnaire before leaving the club as much as it seems easy to do, is done in very few clubs across Europe. Still, one should think are there some new insights hidden which can be easily reached.

Only working areas which are represented in all three analyzed margins are: “players”, “coaches” and “staff”. Those working areas and processes within them could be understood as core of academy.

HOW DO WE WORK WITH FOOTBALL PLAYER AGENTS?

First, I suggest you read ECA research on Youth academies available on https://lnkd.in/eQh69vNt. Here are a few tips on how to use this publication:

1.     Go through the list of working processes used in the survey and see if you find any working process on the list interesting for you and are willing to work on its implementation (feel free to contact me for a list of working processes if you haven’t saved them from survey)

2.     Go through lists of most used working processes and see if you have all of them (pages 60-61)

3.     Go through the list of least used working processes and see which you don’t have (pages 62-63)

4.     Go through the list of most correlated processes and try to identify causality for correlation and see how those working processes are relevant in your academy (pages 64-67)

5.     If you find a specific working process especially interesting to you, feel free to contact me to reach out for the list of working processes it is correlated with.

6.     Go through the list of most recognized indicators of successful transition from academy to the first team and cross-check it with your club (pages 70-73).

Looking forward to hearing (reading) your opinion, ideas, and comments!

Relation between academy and player agents.

So, how are we dealing with the agents of players as one if not most important but second to most important stakeholder of external players environment next to parents?

If we see list of least used processes in the academies based on research done by LTTsports for ECA we will find that most represented are working processes dealing with players agents.

It is obvious that for some reason these processes are not in focus like other working processes related to players development and still, could have significant influence on player development not just from football perspective, but also from human perspective.

If we take into consideration relation with parents, we can see that we have much more used same or similar working processes with parents than with agents. Regular meetings with parents are held in 92% of clubs while more than double less (40%) are conducting regular meetings with agents.

If we see about group meetings the difference is even larger, it goes from 89% in case of group meetings with parents to 9% in case of group meetings with agents. It is interesting that percent of individual meetings with parents and group meetings with parents are very close in percent (92%-89%) while individual and group meetings with agents are having much bigger difference (40%-9%). Least used are group meetings with agents. It could be challenging process to club, but it might be interesting to identify why is it so challenging if so.

As most important environment which could influence on environment in which kids playing in academy are most of the time and make biggest decisions, are related to parents and agents. Again, in process of assessment in which it is not necessary to include stakeholders (parents/agents) is first of all not broadly used and second, process related to parents is more used (46%) than process of assessment related to agents (20%).

It is not usual to have neither internal rule for working with agents (34%) neither rule limiting or excluding agent in place (6%). It could be that most comfort working zone for working with football academies could be for agents. If we see behavior standards proscribed for parents, we see that is well established (78%) about youth academy environment across Europe. 

We cannot influence on parents as most important part of kids’ environment. As a club it is often said that club (an academy within) is having DNA/identity or set of values which describes club as unique. Those set of values are not just stated for communication or marketing purposes, they are stated as guidelines for seeking compatible partners from different stakeholders. When academy is hiring coach or signing players it is well used process of assessing personality, in coach case 74% and players 80%. 

Those assessments are made, among others, to check player/coach compatibility with values and other club employees/players and to reach goals set up for hiring/signing. Finally for player agents it seems it is, again not well used. Based on research 5% of academies suggest the use of specific agent. Of course, the principle of defining suggestions should be defined clearly and communicated openly and transparently as key part of process.

Most leased used working processes in research made are related to player agents. Although we use the same working processes for other stakeholders it is not common to use it when academies are dealing with agents of players. Individual meetings with parents/agents, group meetings with parents/agents, assessment of personality of players/coaches/agents are working processes which present difference in not using processes for agents which are used for other stakeholders. Still, as important part of kids’ environment agents are influencing on their development as players but also as human beings. Some agents might better fit to some club than others as clubs are having different identities and develop on different strategies which reflects to different scouting and more general business politics.

If you want to implement these processes within your club, the process could be:

1. Identify values which you are protecting within your club.
2. Identify description of environment you think is best for kids’ development.
3. Make procedure of assessment of each players agent.
4. Assess agents by their comparability with club identity.
5. Clearly define set of rules for agents of players.
6. Openly and transparently communicate these rules to relevant stakeholders which must include at least agents, parents, agents, coaches, and staff.
7. Measure and report on development of agent behavior.
8. Educate parents about relevance of these process and introduce to them the use of same working processes for other stakeholders which include parents as well.

*It is recommended to have an expert in social network, communication, pedagogy, business, and expert in psychology included in this process.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND YOUNG FOOTBALL PLAYERS?

First, I suggest you to read ECA research on Youth academies available on https://lnkd.in/eQh69vNt. Here are a few tips on how to use this publication:

1.     Go through the list of working processes used in the survey and see if you find any working process on the list interesting for you and are willing to work on its implementation (feel free to contact me for a list of working processes if you haven’t saved them from survey)

2.     Go through lists of most used working processes and see if you have all of them (pages 60-61)

3.     Go through the list of least used working processes and see which you don’t have (pages 62-63)

4.     Go through the list of most correlated processes and try to identify causality for correlation and see how those working processes are relevant in your academy (pages 64-67)

5.     If you find a specific working process especially interesting to you, feel free to contact me to reach out for the list of working processes it is correlated with.

6.     Go through the list of most recognized indicators of successful transition from academy to the first team and cross-check it with your club (pages 70-73).

Looking forward to hearing (reading) your opinion, ideas, and comments!

What are we doing re “digital life” of kids in an academy?

So, what are we taking doing re “digital life” of kids in an academy? What are challenges to kids and how they use it.

One of least used processes in the academies based on research done by LTTsports for ECA is “The club does employ anyone to take care of players personal brand” and it is truth in 16% of clubs.

Based on an article made by Ofcom (Great Britain regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day; https://www.linkedin.com/company/ofcom/ ) available on link https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/one-in-three-internet-users-fail-to-question-misinformation. Based on an article, usage of social network is huge, based on source used in an article (World Economic Forum, August 2021, Here’s what happens every minute on the internet in 2021; https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/one-minute-internet-web-social-media-technology-online/ ), every minute sees 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube, 5,000 videos viewed on TikTok and 695,000 stories shared on Instagram. Furter on among older children aged 12-17, 74% of them are confident that they can correctly estimate if content on social network is fake but only 11% are able.

Despite being under the minimum age requirement (13 for most social media sites), 33% of parents of 5-7s and twice as many 8-11s (60%) said they have a social media profile. Older children are most likely to have a profile on Instagram (55% of 12-15s), while younger children aged 8-11 were more likely to have profiles on TikTok (34%) and YouTube (27%). TikTok is growing in popularity, even among the youngest age groups; 16% of 3–4-year-olds and 29% of 5-7s use the platform (Ofcom).

Still, it seems it might influence on kids focus based on same article. Children reported being unable to watch films, or other long-form content, without being on multiple devices at the same time. In fact, only 4% of children aged 3-17 say they never do anything else while watching TV (data from The Insights Family).

More than a third of children (35%) reported engaging in potentially risky behaviours, which could hinder a parent or guardian keeping proper checks on their online use. A fifth surfed in incognito mode (21%), or deleted their browsing history (19%), and one in 20 circumvented parental controls put in place to stop them visiting certain apps and sites (6%). Of those profile lot of them are fake. Based on Ofcom research, two-thirds of 8-11-year-olds had multiple accounts or profiles (64%). Among these, almost half (46%) have an account just for their family to see. A fifth of 16-17 years-olds (20%) choose to have separate profiles dedicated to a hobby such as skateboarding, gaming or photography.

Still, some kids are recognizing positive side of social networks, using it for wellbeing. Based on an article, over half (53%) of 13–17-year-olds feel that being online is good for their mental health, compared with 17% who disagreed.

From sport and wellbeing perspective in Ofcom article could be found that eight in ten 13–17-year-olds are using online services to support their personal wellbeing. A quarter said they have learnt about healthy eating online or have found help with ‘growing-up issues’ like relationships and puberty. A fifth used the internet to follow fitness programmes and health trackers, or to get help when feeling sad, anxious, or worried. Similarly, about one in 10 went online to help with sleep issues, to meditate, or to help them feel energized, with Calm (34%) and Headspace for Kids (29%) the most popular apps used (Ofcom).

Finally, kids are using almost regularly social networks from very young ages (despite minimum age requirements), they are aware that they are engaged in potentially risky behavior, their focus on long term content is regularly disturbed by using other devices and big majority of kids are having multiple profiles on social networks. On the other side big majority use online services to support their wellbeing and some are using it for fitness programmes and health trackers. They also learn about relationship on social services content. Also, based on kids’ presence it could also be used in talent identification process. So, it is important part of their life, and they find it credible in significant percent of kids population. Still, I would say, just 16% of clubs are employing somebody to care about players’ personal brand.

If we see that, based on an article “‘Social Media Manager’ is One of the Most Popular Jobs in the US. It’s a Lot Harder than it Sounds” by Greta Rainbow from 2020 (https://money.com/social-media-jobs/), social media manager is most wanted jobs, topic of having working process related to kids “digital” life or life’s might be on the table within football youth academies as well. They are using and providing content available on social networks forever. Once on internet, always on internet. Also, important part of their identity is their “digital” identity, and it influences on their mood, on their focus on daily tasks related to school but also trainings and match played. Teaching them how to use it and helping them express their content is not just exercise related to social network but much more, it helps them deal with spectrum of situations which they will benefit as human beings in their life.

If you want to implement this process within your club, the process could be:

1. Identify most common treats on social networks for kids.
2. Identify most useful, recommended content on social services for kids.
3. Educate kids how to provide content in safe and sustainable perspective from content side.
4. Educate kids how to deal with conflict situation on social networks.
5. Introduce to kids’ communication channel and expert whom they can address to related to any question related to dealing with the content on the social services.
6. Help them make development plan for social network profiles.
7. Take care about kids’ privacy.
8. Regularly follow their publicly available social networks profiles.
9. Measure and report on development of their profile.
10. Educate parents and managers about all prior steps.

*It is recommended to have an expert in social network communication and expert in psychology included in this process.

Additional reading:

“The German Young Olympic Athletes’ Lifestyle and Health Management Study (GOAL Study): design of a mixed-method study” byA. Thiel, K. Diehl, K. E. Giel, A. Schnell, A. M. Schubring, J. Mayer, S. Zipfel & S. Schneider https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2458-11-410

“The Pros and Cons of Athletes using Social Media” by Sarah Daren https://www.coachesclipboard.net/athletes-and-social-media.html

“The Impact of Social Media on Youth Athletes” by Luke Smith https://www.stack.com/a/the-impact-of-social-media-on-youth-athletes/

“Social Talent Scouting: A New Opportunity for the Identification of Football Players?”, by Elena Radicchi, Michele Mozzachiodi,

https://sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/pcssr/70/1/article-p28.pdf“Beyond recreation: Personal social networks and social capital in the transition of young players from recreational football to formal football clubs”, by Edoardo GF Rosso and Richard McGrath, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1012690212444409

We don’t produce just players in football academies!

First, I suggest you read ECA research on Youth academies available on https://lnkd.in/eQh69vNt. Here are a few tips on how to use this publication:

1.     Go through the list of working processes used in the survey and see if you find any working process on the list interesting for you and are willing to work on its implementation (feel free to contact me for a list of working processes if you haven’t saved them from survey)

2.     Go through lists of most used working processes and see if you have all of them (pages 60-61)

3.     Go through the list of least used working processes and see which you don’t have (pages 62-63)

4.     Go through the list of most correlated processes and try to identify causality for correlation and see how those working processes are relevant in your academy (pages 64-67)

5.     If you find a specific working process especially interesting to you, feel free to contact me to reach out for the list of working processes it is correlated with.

6.     Go through the list of most recognized indicators of successful transition from academy to the first team and cross-check it with your club (pages 70-73).

Looking forward to hearing (reading) your opinion, ideas, and comments!

*you can find the publication on this link https://www.linkedin.com/posts/slaven-marasovi%C4%87-075b551b_research-based-on-working-processes-in-academies-activity-6909413896734822400-64VV?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

What are we “producing” in an academy?

So, what are we “producing” in an academy? Obviously, players, but is there something else to “produce”?

Let’s see the player “production” case from Polish Ekstraklasa. If we see the table beneath, we will see that club which is in the top 3 (Lech) by points won in the last five seasons is having 87% of players’ value from homegrown players. Also, 16 of 25 sold players are homegrown players. On the European level, from a previous European Club Association (ECA) survey in 2017, results showed that for almost 60% of the participating club representatives, the academy is a source of revenue for their club. If you see other data on the table beneath, you will find that number of such players is transferred to another club for a fee and sometimes most players transferred with a fee were homegrown players. 

Looking at on next facts list beneath, it is obviously that homegrown players are well recognized on the market (based on Polish Ekstraklasa analysis, made with Josip), although they generally, sometimes have problems in the transition from academy to the first team and as well in adaptation to the new environment after changing the club.

So, is there anything else you can “produce” in an academy besides players? I and my colleagues (Konstantin and Adam from LTTsports and Pouya from ECA) have asked academy directors do they produce coaches for 1st team and then transfer them on the market for fee. Also, we have asked them do they have a working process for the development of football to forecast how football will look alike in 5-10 years, a period in which most of your youth players will be playing professional football.

Out of 18, one interviewed academy is producing coaches for 1st team and further on for market sale, just as most of you usually do for players. Those coaches are coming from academies and maybe is worth spending a few words about the additional benefits of this process. It is most likely that the transition of players from youth academy to the 1st team will be much easier with a coach they already know and are very familiar with him, his training methodologies, playing style, communication, and general, overall environment. Support from above (board and 1st team coach) is one of the most recognized pillars for a successful transition from academy to 1st team found in this report. Is it likely that they will perform better under such a coach? Based on the importance of the transition process from the academy to the 1st team, most likely, yes. Finally, their value is higher. 

From the club management side, finding a coach which will raise the value of youth homegrown players based on better performance is crucial, but also very challenging. A lot of times it can be failed for different reasons. And more expensive as well. For practical reasons, you can look at history where 1st team coach came up from the academy with homegrown players. Since each academy is having coaches on it’s it is maybe worth thinking about the process for their development for 1st team.

Also, in the transition process same playing style is recognized as one of the very important pillars of a successful transition. Besides having the same coach in the 1st team as in the academy, if we are using same playing style in the 1st team as we did in the academy, we are having more transition pillars in line. Developing, or “producing” playing style and tactical setup and making it competent in competition, then we will have more from of our potential of youth academy with the same investment in the academy and less investment in 1st team and most likely better performance, player (and coach?) value and finally results.

If you want to implement this process within your club, the process could be:

1. Define the club’s values as part of the club’s DNA (include the community in the process)
2. Align TID selection process (not just for players, but coaches and staff as well), playing style and 1st team based on values from the club’s DNA
3. Create development path and individual plans for players and coaches selected in the TID process
4. Implement a working process of developing playing style and tactical setup on regular basis to challenge your ones and to develop it further on.
5. Create KPIs for each of three “products” (players, coaches, playing style and tactical setups)
6. Regularly measure and report on development.

Development of football players?

In several next blogs, I will suggest topics that you can use to think about in your football academy. It will be supported by research results, and sometimes by other researchers as well.

So how to use this publication? You can use it following this procedure or using specific points of your interest:

1.     Go through the list of working processes used in the survey and see if you find any working process on the list interesting for you and are willing to work on its implementation (feel free to contact me for a list of working processes if you haven’t saved them from survey)

2.     Go through lists of most used working processes and see if you have all of them (page 60-61)

3.     Go through the list of least used working processes and see which you don’t have (page 62-63)

4.     Go through the list of most correlated processes and try to identify causality for correlation and see how those are working processes relevant in your academy (page 64-67)

5.     If you find a specific working process especially interesting to you, feel free to contact me to reach out for the list of working processes it is correlated with.

6.     Go through the list of most recognized indicators of successful transition from academy to the first team and cross-check it with your club (page 70-73).

Looking forward to seeing your opinion, ideas and comments!

*you can find publication on this link https://www.linkedin.com/posts/slaven-marasovi%C4%87-075b551b_research-based-on-working-processes-in-academies-activity-6909413896734822400-64VV?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

Development of players

Let’s see our focus on the development of players from two perspectives: “physical” and “decision-making”. If we see graphs beneath how much we are measuring “physical” and how much do we measure “decision-making” level we can conclude that we are much more focused on “physical” although players using, they physic as well as their “decision making” during the playing and training process.

So, we obviously create development plans for the “physical” side but do we have development plans for “decision-making”. If we don’t measure what are players’ strengths and weaknesses in the “decision-making” level how we can help them improve it or can we plan their role on the pitch during the game in the best possible way.

When we know weaknesses and strengths (characteristics of players), we can plan development for players but also his or her role on the pitch from both, “physical” and “decision-making” perspective.

So, better decision making, better performance on the pitch. I suggest you think and discuss within the club about including measurement of IQ and assessment of player’s personality in your working processes within the academy as well as working on development plans from that perspective! In any business, people are the key to the success so help them to develop as much as possible.

Let’s see data from the research about the topic.

Physical

If we see how much clubs do assess players about their physical capacities, we see that 98% of clubs surveyed do assess. There is one club in the survey that didn’t have an academy within the club which means that 100% of clubs that do have an academy assess players on their physical capacities.

If we see how much clubs assess technical capacity (not pure physical) we will see the percentage is less but still high.

Decision-making

On the other side if we see how much is assessed “decision-making” level we will see that interest is less with more “decision-making” characteristics assessed.

Players’ personality is assessed by 82% of clubs, while any kind of entrance psycho test is done in 35% of clubs.

Finally, IQ is measured in just 6% of clubs!

If you want to implement this process within your club, the process could be:

1. Create a team that includes coach expert, pedagogue expert and psychology expert at minimum
2. Measure IQ and have an assessment of players’ personality after signing (google “assessment center”)
3. Make a development plan for each player
4. Include players’ characteristics about decision making in his training and players’ game plan
5. Regularly measure and report on development.

In the implementation of these processes, it is strongly recommended to have an expert in psychology included in the process.

If you want to see does IQ has an influence on performance on the pitch, I suggest additional reading:

http://aassjournal.com/article-1-910-en.pdf; Nima Nakisa (1), Mahboobeh Ghasemzadeh Rahbardar (2)

(1) Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Kish Island, Iran; (2) Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629827/full James Kenneth Bowman(1)*, R. Thomas Boone(2), Scott Goldman(3) and Alex Auerbach(4);

(1) Great Neck Public Schools, Great Neck, NY, United States; (2) College of Arts and Sciences, University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, United States; (3) Detroit Lions, Detroit, MI, United States; (4) Toronto Raptors, Toronto, ON, Canada

*You can google as well: “IQ and sports performance” “How to develop IQ” “How to improve decision making”

In several next blogs, I will suggest topics that you can use to think about in your football academy. It will be supported by research results, and sometimes by other researchers as well.  So how to use this publication? You can use it following this procedure or using specific points of your interest:1.     Go through the list of working processes used in the survey and see if you find any working process on the list interesting for you and are willing to work on its implementation (feel free to contact me for a list of working processes if you haven’t saved them from survey)2.     Go through lists of most used working processes and see if you have all of them (page 60-61)3.     Go through the list of least used working processes and see which you don’t have (page 62-63)4.     Go through the list of most correlated processes and try to identify causality for correlation and see how those are working processes relevant in your academy (page 64-67)5.     If you find a specific working process especially interesting to you, feel free to contact me to reach out for the list of working processes it is correlated with.6.     Go through the list of most recognized indicators of successful transition from academy to the first team and cross-check it with your club (page 70-73).  Looking forward to seeing your opinion, ideas and comments!*you can find publication on this link https://www.linkedin.com/posts/slaven-marasovi%C4%87-075b551b_research-based-on-working-processes-in-academies-activity-6909413896734822400-64VV?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web  Development of playersLet’s see our focus on the development of players from two perspectives: “physical” and “decision-making”. If we see graphs beneath how much we are measuring “physical” and how much do we measure “decision-making” level we can conclude that we are much more focused on “physical” although players using, they physic as well as their “decision making” during the playing and training process. So, we obviously create development plans for the “physical” side but do we have development plans for “decision-making”. If we don’t measure what are players’ strengths and weaknesses in the “decision-making” level how we can help them improve it or can we plan their role on the pitch during the game in the best possible way. When we know weaknesses and strengths (characteristics of players), we can plan development for players but also his or her role on the pitch from both, “physical” and “decision-making” perspective. So, better decision making, better performance on the pitch. I suggest you think and discuss within the club about including measurement of IQ and assessment of player’s personality in your working processes within the academy as well as working on development plans from that perspective! In any business, people are the key to the success so help them to develop as much as possible.Let’s see data from the research about the topic. Physical

If we see how much clubs do assess players about their physical capacities, we see that 98% of clubs surveyed do assess. There is one club in the survey that didn’t have an academy within the club which means that 100% of clubs that do have an academy assess players on their physical capacities. If we see how much clubs assess technical capacity (not pure physical) we will see the percentage is less but still high.

  Decision-makingOn the other side if we see how much is assessed “decision-making” level we will see that interest is less with more “decision-making” characteristics assessed.

Players’ personality is assessed by 82% of clubs, while any kind of entrance psycho test is done in 35% of clubs.

Finally, IQ is measured in just 6% of clubs!

  If you want to implement this process within your club, the process could be:

1. Create a team that includes coach expert, pedagogue expert and psychology expert at minimum
2. Measure IQ and have an assessment of players’ personality after signing (google “assessment center”)Make a development plan for each playerInclude players’ characteristics about decision making in his training and players’ game plan
3. Regularly measure and report on development.

In the implementation of these processes, it is strongly recommended to have an expert in psychology included in the process.    If you want to see does IQ has an influence on performance on the pitch, I suggest additional reading:http://aassjournal.com/article-1-910-en.pdf; Nima Nakisa (1), Mahboobeh Ghasemzadeh Rahbardar (2)(1) Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Kish Island, Iran; (2) Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iranhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629827/full James Kenneth Bowman(1)*, R. Thomas Boone(2), Scott Goldman(3) and Alex Auerbach(4);(1) Great Neck Public Schools, Great Neck, NY, United States; (2) College of Arts and Sciences, University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, United States; (3) Detroit Lions, Detroit, MI, United States; (4) Toronto Raptors, Toronto, ON, Canada

*You can google as well: “IQ and sports performance” “How to develop IQ” “How to improve decision making”